New evidence strengthens the case for ‘Planet 9’ in the outer solar system

This site may earn affiliate commissions from the links on this page. Terms of use.

Planets are big, but they’re surprisingly hard to spot in the vastness of space. Astronomers are busy cataloging planets in other solar systems — including the one next door that we missed until just recently. In fact, we aren’t 100% sure we’ve found all the planets in our own solar system. In a new study published in The Astronomical Journal, scientists present compelling evidence for the existence of a large planet orbiting at the edge of the solar system.

The solar system used to have nine planets, of course. That hasn’t been true since Pluto was demoted to dwarf planet status a decade ago. What astronomers are talking about now is something that is undeniably a planet (if it exists). This hypothetical “Planet 9” would be several times larger than Earth with enough mass to cause detectable perturbations in the orbits of smaller objects in the outer solar system.

The pieces started to fall into place for astronomers Chadwick Trujillo and Scott Sheppard several years ago when they analyzed the highly elliptical orbits of Sedna and several smaller objects. They all shared orbital characteristics that indicated they might have been influenced by a massive object in the same region of space. At the time, the pair estimated the unseen planet could be anywhere from 2-15 times more massive than Earth. Earlier this year a different team ran computer simulations that support the notion that the unusual clustering of orbits in the outer solar system is due to a 10-Earth mass planet orbiting about 600 AU from the sun (that’s 600 times the distance from the sun to Earth).

Now, Trujillo and Sheppard say they have spotted several dozen more celestial bodies in the outer solar system. Several of these objects offer strong support for the presence of a large planet out there. The best evidence comes from two 125-mile wide planetoids that fall in the “argument of perihelion,” an important orbital parameter for Planet 9 (in red above). In all, there are about 15 objects in this region of space, and several of them have such extreme elliptical orbits that planets like Neptune and Saturn could not have gravitational sway over them.

Sheppard puts the odds of Planet 9 being real at about 80%. With a few more objects that fall in the argument of perihelion and it will be difficult to dismiss the existence of a planet out there. Assuming Planet 9 does exist, will we ever be able to see it? It’s entirely possible that something of that size would be visible from Earth using powerful telescopes, but it will be faint. Planet 9 could be anyplace in a large swath of sky, so tracking it down won’t be easy. If more small objects influenced by Planet 9’s gravity can be found, they might point the way to the solar system’s 9th planet.

I was thinking about that as I wrote the OP. It was lymph nodes in the brain IIRC, as well as an older one about something in the knee.

Cestarian

Yes.

eonvee375

not that weird for me, as we still dont know all the species on our planet for example, or better yet we still dont know how some organs function in our body… we will always dont know something even if its right in front of us… (or inside…)

Makes perfect sense to me. The solar system is HUGE. It takes almost two years just to get a Jupiter flyby…It takes light 5 1/2 hours to reach Pluto from the Sun. It took New Horizon’s almost a decade to get to Pluto. Your analogy makes more sense in reference to our oceans on Earth, because they are right in our backyard and we’ve yet to discover most of the species in it or explore most of the deeper regions in person (radar doesn’t count haha). So with these celestial bodies always in motion, and with the entire milky way and other bodies as a backdrop, it’s very hard to pinpoint objects just within the confines of our Sun’s heliosphere.

It would be funny if the conspiracy theorists turned out to be accidentally right.

John Thomas

Accidentally? No accident, it’s history. Sumerian history. Nibiru = Planet Nine, they just won’t tell the public that.

dc

I hope it has an oxygen atmosphere so that we can live there and never need AC.

vardarac

Can’t we just name it Plutwo and be done with it?

gw2

We can mine its resources and leave it a cold empty shell where we send our nuclear waste and used tampaxes.

The Watson

Probably find out when it’s on course for earth or moon. Seems odd no one in Ancient times mentioned it. Then again it may have orbited even before the Anjels, Demons & so on walked the earth.. Plausible it contributed to dinosaurs extinction….?

Tom

It was actually mentioned in the ancient Sumerian texts. In fact, the Sumerians said that the planet was inhabited by the Anunnaki or Nephilim. The
Nephilim are mentioned in the Bible in Genesis.

deb

Circles the sun every 3200 yrs or so … is that correct. I read Zacharia Sitchen’s books… and was totally enthralled.

Folatt

Who’s to say that these Trans-Neptunian objects aren’t former extrasolar objects caught by the sun’s gravity?

BillBasham

Once construction is finished on it it will become quite easy to detect…

MatthiasGreygone

It often is amazing that we study the planets one by one like sand on the beach, But we never think on a big enough scale to explain much of what we do not know even exists. “Planet 9”, and all the rest of the names, labels, and numerous others, is an object, or planet that ‘wasn’t there before’. This good sized object is a super magnetic large celestial traveler, whose super magnetic field is disturbing the balance of the planets as it continues to possibly be headed this way. I can go on further, but maybe another day.
Our Earth is also a round magnetic rock. So we have two magnetic bodies that have a North and South, and the smaller magnetic object has no choice except to magnetically line up with a larger magnet. Perhaps space has its own physics similar to our planet. This means that the poles of our planet are currently in the process of changing the locations of our North and South.as it adjusts its poles to match the poles of an object perhaps10 times our planet.
Perhaps at this point, you may realize that the land we walk on is moving, but the weather patterns of the world does not follow. With me? Good Depending on which direction our planet it rolls, you and I roll with it. The weather patterns around the world don’t. So not only the weather may now be capable of snowing over Arizona, But the confusion of the land movement is perhaps much of the cause of our dangerous and destructive storms.

This site may earn affiliate commissions from the links on this page. Terms of use.

ExtremeTech Newsletter

Subscribe Today to get the latest ExtremeTech news delivered right to your inbox.